The Morning Walk.
His health was delicate, but he was not suffering as in later years; his spirits were overflowing, and his kindliness and personal charm had made him friends everywhere.
On the 10th of April he enters in his diary—"At Armstrong's all day. Began to paint pigeons on canvas panel. Looking at pigeons in British Museum quadrangle;" and on the 11th again, "painting pigeons."
On the 15th of April he is "making a drawing of storks, &c.," and on the 17th, 21st, and 22nd, "painting swans at Armstrong's all day."
On the 23rd of April he enters: "Bas-relief hunting scene going on," and on 24th, "painting storks and pigeons," and on 28th, "swans."
The painting of swans, storks, and pigeons, referred to above, was very important work for Caldecott. In conjunction with his friend Mr. Armstrong, he painted the birds in two panels, one of swans (reproduced overleaf), and one of a stork and magpie. These panels were about six feet high, and form part of a series of decorations in the dining-room of Mr. Henry Renshawe's house at Bank Hall, near Buxton, Derbyshire.
The series of decorative paintings (by Thomas Armstrong) which included these panels, was exhibited at Mr. Deschamps' Gallery in New Bond Street in 1874, and attracted much attention at the time. The birds showed to great advantage, and will remain in the memory of many as amongst the most vigorous and effective of Caldecott's paintings in oils. They showed, thus early, a mastery of bird form and a power in reserve of an unusual kind.
"I have paid a little attention to decorative art," he writes to a friend at this time; besides being "at work on the Sketch Book," the results of which will be seen in the next chapter.